EOS, BTT, ETH: The top 10 altcoin performers in May 2019

EOS, BTT, ETH: The top 10 altcoin performers in May 2019

Despite May ending with the cryptocurrency market in red numbers, we can look back at very bullish price action in both Bitcoin and altcoins in the last month. This is the top 10 of best performing altcoins in the top 100 in the month May.

And with Bitcoin as number 11 on the list, gaining 57.39% in May, this at the same time is an overview of the 10 projects that managed to outperform Bitcoin this month.

10. IOTA (IOT) – 58%
We start the list with IOTA, that gained almost 60% in May in two waves, one starting on May 12 and one starting on May 26. The latest rise of IOTA was the result of an announcement about Coordicide, a decentralized mechanism securing the IOTA Network, that will replace the old Coordinator.

IOTA/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

9. Ethereum (ETH) – 62.82%
Ethereum has slightly outperformed Bitcoin in May, gaining 5% more than the number one in the cryptocurrency market. Year-to-date however, Bitcoin is still on top, gaining 120% while Ethereum has made 89% gains.

ETH/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

8. EOS (EOS) – 65.52%
EOS has seen a lot of price action in the last week, due to an announcement that will be made on June 1. According to Founder Daniel Larimer, it will be ‘the biggest news since the EOSIO announcement’. On May 30, Coinbase announced that EOS is now available on Coinbase.com and the apps. EOS is up 66% in May.

EOS/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

7. NEM (XEM) – 67.25%
NEM has experienced some difficult months, but is back at it in May with the launch of Catapult, the NEM blockchain 2.0, and the Zeux integration, which allows people to spend XEM through Samsung Pay and Apple Pay. As a result, NEM is up 67% this month.

XEM/USDT Chart provided by Tradingview

6. Bitcoin Cash (BCH) – 67.49%
Bitcoin Cash is a steady gainer all year already surging 164% since the start of the year and that bullish performance is no different in may, with BCH jumping 67%. This makes it the sixth best performer of the month.

BCH/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

5. Holo (HOT) – 72.77%
Holochain has seen an incredible month, winning the award Disrupter of the Year 2019 on the Malta Blockchain Awards, and seeing its Holo/HOT token gaining over 70%. HOT is now the 34th largest project on Coinmarketcap.

HOT/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

4. Bitcoin Gold (BTG) – 73.72%
Bitcoin Gold is the fourth biggest gainer of the month, gaining 73% in May entering the top 25 on Coinmarketcap. It’s one of the three Bitcoin forks that are thriving and outperforming Bitcoin this month.

BTG/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

3. Chainlink (LINK) – 110.68%
Chainlink has seen a growth of over 100% following the news that it will release its Ethereum mainnet on May 30. The project made the deadline, and announced on Thursday that Chainlink’s decentralized oracles are now live on the Ethereum mainnet.

We’re thrilled to announce that Chainlink’s decentralized oracles are live on Ethereum mainnet; https://t.co/ydZxZG8t89. Thank you to our community, node operators, developers, and all of our supporters for helping us get to this important point, thank you.

2. BitTorrent (BTT) – 132.04%
BitTorrent was one of the best performers in May, gaining an astonishing 130% following a series of announcements. The biggest was the launch of the BitTorrent Files System on May 30 and the announcement that the BTFS will integrate BTT in late 2019. Next to that, in Q3 all TRON dApps as well as BitTorrent network transactions will be supported by the mainnet that will be launched in the next quarter.

BTT/USD Chart provided by Tradingview

1. Bitcoin SV (BSV) – 230%
Bitcoin SV has seen the most turbulant performance in the last month. BSV’s run started following fake news that a US Copyright Office had granted the copyright of the Bitcoin whitepaper and code to Craig Wright, who claims to be Satoshi Nakaomoto but has been nicknamed Faketoshi by part of the crypto community.

The US Copyright Office denied the claims of Wright, and stated that everyone can start a procedure to file for the copyright, but that nothing has been granted. This week, BSV surged again following fake news that was spread in China. Several crypto media in China shared the news that Wright had moved 50K BTC from Satoshi’s wallet to Binance, ‘confirming he is the real Satoshi. Binance will now relist BSV and make an official apology.’

This again turned out to be fake news, but tricked a lot if investors into buying BSV. Surprisingly BSV managed to hold the levels after the dubious pumps, and therefore saw 230% gains in May.

The parent blockchain of EOS token, EOSIO became a casualty of an attack, after a gambling dApp was exploited by an attacker, accumulating 30,000 EOS (approximately amounting to 111,000 $) in the process.

The intruder reportedly took advantage of a loophole in the dApp EOSplay, permitting him to win consecutive rolls by filling the blocks with paid transactions.

Twitter user @rektkid, was one of the first to notice the intrusion. He took to the social media platform to explain that the attacker had taken the help of REX, an ESO resource exchange for RAM and CPU outlets, which led to consistent fill-up of blocks with transactions, allowing him to create a continuous win situation on the gambling app. After over 30,000 EOS was transferred to the attacker’s wallet, the blockchain’s network froze.

Something is happening with CPU on #EOS right now. We're under attack. Mayday.

However, the attack may have effected the network more than it was expected.

Another twitter user Dexaran, provided more insight into the attack and claimed that all his contracts on the EOS mainnet had stopped due to high network congestion. He added that his 20 staked EOS CPU gave him a feeble network signal of 6 ms instead of the 2800 ms in normal state.

He contemplated the intruder’s plan of action and addressed how the attack occurred. An update on the network was released by Dexaran. He said,

The parent blockchain of EOS token, EOSIO became a casualty of an attack, after a gambling dApp was exploited by an attacker, accumulating 30,000 EOS (approximately amounting to 111,000 $) in the process.

The intruder reportedly took advantage of a loophole in the dApp EOSplay, permitting him to win consecutive rolls by filling the blocks with paid transactions.

Twitter user @rektkid, was one of the first to notice the intrusion. He took to the social media platform to explain that the attacker had taken the help of REX, an ESO resource exchange for RAM and CPU outlets, which led to consistent fill-up of blocks with transactions, allowing him to create a continuous win situation on the gambling app. After over 30,000 EOS was transferred to the attacker’s wallet, the blockchain’s network froze.

Source: Twitter

However, the attack may have effected the network more than it was expected.

Another twitter user Dexaran, provided more insight into the attack and claimed that all his contracts on the EOS mainnet had stopped due to high network congestion. He added that his 20 staked EOS CPU gave him a feeble network signal of 6 ms instead of the 2800 ms in normal state.

He contemplated the intruder’s plan of action and addressed how the attack occurred. An update on the network was released by Dexaran. He said,

“Attack stopped, network is back in a normal mode.

>30K EOS stolen because of the vulnerability of DApp design.

Not $EOS flaw. Just a smart-contract that was hacked. To smart-contract devs: 1. Follow best security practices. 2. Do not rely on on-chain source of entropy in EOS.”

Asian Entities Seek “Partners” to Manipulate EOS BP Voting

Controversy is always looming around the corner in the cryptocurrency industry. A lot of shady deals are going on, although not all of them will have any lasting effect. In the EOS ecosystem, various proxies have been approached by third parties looking to gain control over their “votes” and to create value. It is a very problematic turn of events, although one that might not cause any problems as of yet.

THE EOS PROXIES ARE POPULAR

It is evident every cryptocurrency network has nodes or members which depict a certain degree of network value. As far as EOS is concerned, that value doesn’t just come from block producers, but also proxies which operate on the network. As is to be expected, a fair few proxies tend to lose traction over time as others move to the forefront.

Despite their “loss” of value, it seems those proxies are still of interest to third parties, primarily originating from the East. These entities aim to obtain the rights of as many proxies as possible and are even willing to “create value for EOS holders’ in doing so. While this makes for a seemingly legitimate business model at first, there is something far more nefarious going on behind the scenes.

PROPAGATING BP VOTES

The main purpose of gaining authority of an EOS proxy is to influence the votes which are given to certain block producers. Although anyone in the world can create their own proxy or become a new block producer as they see fit, obtaining an established party is an easier and quicker way to what is perceived as a guaranteed success.

1/2EOS block producer #EOSLambdaCom (currently rank #19) asks to take control of my proxy & change the BP selections, while keeping my proxy's name and my face on it. And then reward the voters.

Multiple conversations have been shared on Twitter regarding the approach by Asian “investors”. They all seem to target EOS proxies which are losing traction. As such, they want them to vote for certain block producers, for which they will receive a financial compensation in return. It can be a somewhat lucrative venture for those willing to throw away any credibility, but everyone else isn’t really interested. As such, there is no reason to expect any immediate repercussions due to this behavior.

A PROBLEM AT THE CORE?

If there is one thing to take away from all this, it is how EOS’s core infrastructure could allow for BP voting manipulation. This was known from the start, although little has been done to prevent it from happening. While any wrongdoings will become apparent fairly quickly, a lot of damage can be done before that happens. As such, one has to question if this approach needs to undergo changes now or in the future.

In allegation 1, Huobi votes for 20 other BPs candidates where 16 of those vote for Huobi as well. As you can see in the image attached to this tweet. pic.twitter.com/VBfFyjWyxU

It would not be the first time BP voting manipulation takes place on EOS either. Last year, numerous parties were accused of doing exactly that. While no official proof was offered at that time, it seems some entities are more than willing to go down the dirty tricks route. One also has to keep in mind collusion would cost a lot of money in the EOS ecosystem, and might not necessarily be worth pursuing. That said, nothing is impossible, and all options remain on the table until further notice.